(Part 2 of 2: 1952-1969)

During the post-war era, a new type of genre emerged: lesbian pulp fiction. These pulp novels, named as such because of the cheap paper they were printed on, were primarily targeted to red-blooded males. The authors were mostly men, but a few were written by lesbians using pseudonyms. Even though the books often ended tragically, lesbians were happy to find some representation of themselves in literature. The books were often passed around among friends and kept hidden in closets or under mattresses. There was a prevailing community spirit. These women may be inside the closet, but they knew they weren’t alone. Some of these lesbian pulp novels have now been re-issued as classics.

#6 - Spring Fire by Marijane Meaker (1952)

Spring Fire, written by Marijane Meaker, under the pseudonym of Vin Packer, is often considered to be the first lesbian pulp novel, although it also addressed issues of conformity in 1950s American society. It was originally published in 1952 by Gold Medal Books, and sold 1.5 million copies through at least three printings. The story is based on an affair Meaker had in boarding school as a teenager. She was awkward and shy in a new school and fell in love with a more experienced, older girl. They traded love letters, and the other girl’s mother found them on the eve of a weekend trip they were to take together. “She said she’d rather kill herself than be like me,” Meaker remembered of the girl’s mother. Spring Fire inspired other serious writers in the lesbian pulp fiction genre such as Ann Bannon and Valerie Taylor, and indeed, proved so profitable that the genre attracted (usually male) writers whose books exploited the topic of lesbianism. In short, it launched an entire genre of fiction.

#7 - The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (1952)

The Price of Salt is a novel written by Patricia Highsmith under the pen-name Claire Morgan. It was rejected by Highsmith’s publisher because of its lesbian content, but was published elsewhere and became widely read. She recalled that the idea for the story came to her one afternoon when she noticed a mysterious and striking woman in a department store. Highsmith became sick later that night and when she awoke from her dreams the next day, the story had taken form in her head. She began writing at a furious speed while she was sick with what turned out to be the chickenpox. The book is about a chance encounter between two women, one going through a divorce trial. Because of the happy ending (or at least an ending with the possibility of happiness) that defied the lesbian pulp formula, and because of the unconventional characters that defied stereotypes about homosexuality, The Price of Salt was popular among lesbians in the 1950s who had never seen a lesbian portrayed in a positive light. The book was also published in the UK under the name Carol.

#8 - The Beebo Brinker Chronicles by Ann Bannon (1957 - 1962)

Ann Bannon lived a double life. She was married with children, but traveled to New York City on weekends to go to lesbian bars. She wrote The Beebo Brinker Chronicles under the pseudonym Ann Weldy. The series includes Odd Girl Out, I Am A Woman, Women In The Shadows, Journey To A Woman, and Beebo Brinker. The most popular of Bannon’s characters, Beebo Brinker is remarkable in literature - especially in the 1950s and 1960s. She adamantly refuses to dress femininely, in fact declining a higher education because she knows these vocations would limit her to wearing feminine clothing. She would rather take jobs that are clearly below her abilities (elevator operator and delivery boy). Beebo Brinker is described as striking in appearance, tall, muscular, with an unmistakably handsome boyish face. She is intelligent, funny, vulnerable, all at once and she does not apologize for being who she is: a butch lesbian. Bannon’s characters became archetypes in the lesbian community when there were no role models. Beebo Brinker is “arguably still the most iconic figure in all of lesbian fiction.”

#9 - Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule (1964)

The story was adapted loosely into the 1985 film Desert Hearts, directed by Donna Deitch. The book was originally published in hardback by Macmillan Canada. It was one of the very few novels that addressed lesbianism that was published in hardback form; most books during this period with female homosexuality as a topic were considered lesbian pulp fiction until 1969. At the time the novel was published, Rule was a lecturer at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and because the novel dealt with lesbianism, her job was threatened. Rule’s first novel received warm praise from literary critics who described it as, “an intelligent novel, not afraid of ideas, and not committed to them overdiagrammatically.” Rule’s prose did not sensationalize the relationship between Evelyn and Ann, choosing a detached method of writing one reviewer noted, “Miss Rule is so arbitrary in her depiction of the major characters’ psyche-searching and so sketchy in her description of minor figures that the reader is apt to have little empathy with anyone.” One reviewer cautioned potential readers that despite the lack of sensationalism, “The Desert of the Heart is not recommended to those who find sexual perversion an uncomfortable subject.”

#10 - Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller (1969)

Patience and Sarah is a 1969 historical fiction lesbian novel by Alma Routsong, using the pen name Isabel Miller. It was originally self-published under the title A Place For Us and eventually found a publisher as Patience and Sarah in 1971. It is fiction based on a real-life painter named Mary Ann Willson who lived with her companion Miss Brundage as a “farmerette” in the early 19th century in Greene County, New York. Routsong said she came upon Willson’s work in a folk art museum in Cooperstown and was inspired to write the story after reading the description of Willson and Brundage. It tells the story of two women in Connecticut in 1816 who fall in love and decide to leave their homes to buy a farm in another state or territory and live in a Boston marriage. The story addresses the limited opportunities and roles of women in early America, gender expression, and the interpretation of religion in everyday life. Sarah Waters, author of Tipping the Velvet and other historical novels with lesbian themes, has said that this book was an influence on her writing. She received the book from a girlfriend in 1988 at age 22 and was “struck by the lyricism and economy of it, by its gentle humour, and by its sexiness.” The novel won the Stonewall Book Award for 1971, the first and most enduring awards for LGBT books.

Read “10 Classic Lesbian Fiction: Early 20th Century, Part 1″.